Get to NL tourney and still trying to find Chris "Jepstonian" Jepson and Raffy Kaloustian for our DV8s (people from our '08 virgin group) last longer bets with the ADBs and '09 Virgins.  Find Jepstonian's table who pays for his share of the last DV8 longer bet and says don't count Raffy in any of the last longer bets since he did not come back to the room last night and may not make it to the tourney after having a "only in Vegas" experience.  I check my syndicate list and confirm we paid $80 for him and Dave Low.  Doh!

 

Sit down at my table where my buddy James Hammer is also seated along with Betty Tanenbaum, Deron Brod, Rick Da Voice Charles, and Barbara Garrett.  It is a minor miracle Da Voice is even playing since he is schedule for heart surgery soon.  The seat to my left is open for a round or so, then Guy "Grizz" Berentsen sits down.  Dam, James and I come all the way to Vegas together and are seated at the same table.  Now Grizz is at my table AGAIN like he was in Blackjack, the Weds Dealer's Choice game, and my second TOC table.  WTF?

 

I am card dead and mostly muck with few steal opportunities for a long time.  Can only spectate as James gets sucked out on a hand.  He gets no callers with his pocket Aces, and gets induced into bluffing when Grizz slow plays pocket Jacks headup in the big blind.  James out early.

 

I only last a few levels longer than James.  I finally get a real hand (K/K), and somebody has pushed all-in in front of me for about half of my chips.  It is Ashley Murray, who took James' seat after he went busted.  I re-pop all-in so nobody can get in with just 2 to 1 odds behind me.  Its my Kings vs Ashley's pockets Nines.  Yes! And I flop a King.   WTF?  The dealer is pushing the pot to Ashley?  Really?  runner, runner straight

 

A round or so later Ashley is the first one in and limps.  Folded to me in the SB.  I decide to take a shot with my remaining 800 or so in chips.  Kevan's mom folds the BB leaving my Ace/3 suited vs Ashley's Q/J.  Flop has a Queen and a Jack, and Ashley sends me to the sidelines (or I send myself to the sidelines for going all-in with that shit) .

 

James and I try to lick our tourney wounds with some bets on baseball games at the Nugget sports book.  I drop another $150 on these losing parleys.

 

Later I come to check out the NL field.  Murray Drunky McLibtard Logan is the last remaining person playing from the syndicate pairs we bought.  He busts out around 25th so our syndicate money is dust.

 

There are still two ADBs (Ken QB & BigBoy Bruce K) and one virgin left (Corey "No Limp" Means).  David Kluchman is the only DV8 left.  

 

Corey busts out 19th, QB busts 12th, and David busts out 11th.  Bruce K r00les all the way to 3rd.  Good job Bruce.  So the DV8 are 1-1 in last longers, but since the Virgin group was larger than the DV8s this year, we make a little profit.  A whopping $4.45 to be exact.

 

The banquet is good after James, Virgin Queen Sean, and I score seats on Foldem's table with Jester, Bingo, Sabyl, Steve Landrum, and the Tanenbaums.  Nick does a really great job as an MC.  And Nolan is a world class interviewer.  I down two Vodka cranberries and a screwdriver to get the buzz going.  I love the food after swapping my well done steak for Betty Tanenbaum's medium rare steak. 

 

After the banquet, I get into a $3/6 Dealer's Choice reindeer game that is calling almost all Omaha varients.  Grizz is at my table AGAIN.  He must be attracted to all my loose action.  David Low, Doug Grismore, and Kyle Minnis are also playing.  Kyle is running over this table and up $300 after a couple hours.  I lose about $100 over the course of nearly 5 hours.  I do win a Welcome to BARGE '09 shirt that is really cool. 

 

A little after 3 AM, James calls me and tells me that United Airlines has canceled our 6:15 AM flight because of "mechanical problems".  This annoys me because now I have to leave the game and try to figure out our new travel plans.  James is trying to find other options because we cannot stay another day since we have to get back to work Sunday night.  

 

Instead of a direct flight to San Francisco, we have to fly to LA and change planes to get home.  We have to now rush to pack up and catch a flight leaving at 4:30 AM.  We catch the plane ontime and fall asleep almost immediately after takeoff.  We awoke upon landing in LA and run to the gate of the plane to SF.  We fall asleep again just shortly after takeoff exhausted from our BARGE fun and games and dreaming of BARGE 2010.

 

TOC format tourney day.  James and I missed about a round sleeping in.  I get to my table with Matt Ivestor, Matt Murray, Paul prmcm McMullin, and others having lost about 25-30 of the 3,000 in chips for antes.  I lose about 500 of my chips at this table.  After a 3rd of the field has busted, the table breaks and I get moved to a table with Jeff Blofeld Deitch, Grizz, JP Massar, and Paul Person.  

 

On the 1st break during the group photo, I see Foldem whose cheek has swollen up more to where it now look like he is now carrying a Ping Pong ball in his mouth.  His medication must have been kicking in too since he reintroduces me to Bingo and Jester, who I have previously met.  Getting a little worried about my friend, and fortunately Patti is able to get him to the ER to get the situation checked out after he busts from the tourney.

 

At my new table, I imitate a big donkey on a Stud hand.  I give away nearly half of my remaining chips.  I get pocket Queens with a King up in stud and raise the bring in and a limper.  Paul Person 3 bets me with an Ace up and clears the field.  I call his raise, and then the dealer has a brainfart and puts out a flop of Ace/Queen/3.  My mouth waters seeing that Queen, which I hope could somehow end up in my hand.  The floor is called, and the flop is turned into an Ace for me and Queen for Paul.  Paul bets, and now I have a brainfart.  I incorrectly think well I have one of his Aces, maybe he doesn't really have split Aces.  I try to call but accidentally raise thinking the limit was higher than it was.  Paul only calls my raise, but bets into me after I get a Jack on 5th street.  Now, I say well I have a gutshot, the last Queen, and maybe if I hit 2 pair it might be good.  So I call a 5th and 6th street bet only to receive two bricks, and I muck to Paul's bet on 7th street since I could not even beat his original split Aces. 

 

Now I am frustrated that I stupidly pissed away half my chips when I SHOULD have clearly mucked on 4th street, but tried to call and idiotically raised instead.  I wait for an opportunity to put the rest of my now short stack in a pot.  I finally decide to take a shot in late position in a 5-way Omaha hand that has been raised where I have a suited Ace/3 with J/J.  I actually river a set of Jacks, but Grizz made a straight to end my TOC tourney.

 

Wander around Binion's for a little while James is still playing in the TOC.  Run into Kevan Garrett and JP Masser who want to start a Chinese Poker game for $5 a point.  Having never played, I say sure I'll give it a try.  I set a limit of $200 for myself in donation/-EV to JP.  Actually was ahead at one point buy briefly.  Kevan and JP are cool in waiting for me to decide my setup and telling me after the fact where I had screwed up.  Fich and Rich Omaholic Bremer eventually join the game and by the time the Symposium is starting, I've paid $110 in tuition to JP.

 

At the Symposium, James, Sean, David Kluchman, and I form a small syndicate.  With a budget of only $400, we buy Nolan Dalla and 4 other pairs.  One pair (Ross Poppel & George Wattman) were marked down because people were worried they would not make it to Vegas, but they ended up showing up in time for the NL tourney.

 

After the Symposium, James, Sean, and I have a nice dinner at the Italian restaurant by the pool at the Golden Nugget.  Good food, great desserts, but our waitress was rather ditzy.

 

After dinner, James is going to check out Karaoke, but instead checks out his bed in our room.  Sean and I head out in search of a game with local and tourist "talent" rather the BARGErs.  We end up at the Bellagio again.  I get in a loose aggressive 15/30 game.  This is a sweet game that I wish I could play in every day.  Sean sits down in a loose NL game with people who are going all-in too frequently.  I am ahead most of the evening until a bad run when Sean texts me to leave since we had agreed to go back in time to get a good nights rest for the NL tourney the next day.  I reluctantly leave stuck $240 while Shawn is slighty ahead.

 

THURS 7/30-

Team McLibtard makes its debut at CHORSE.  I can't believe a goofball idea that James, Sean, and I kicked around has comes to fruition with BARGE luminaries Foldem, Goldie, and Nolan Dalla.

 

I play the Omaha McLibtard and win a few half pots to increase our stack size.  At my table is Deadhead Len G who is astonished that his nut draws can't ever get there while Live Straddler Len Marciano is running over the game by defending his BB with J/10/6/3 and scooping with 10 full of 3s on the river.  On the very next hand, Len M calls a raise from the SB and punishes an A/2/3/10 with his 6/6/X/X on a board of 6/3/3/10/J. 

 

Unfortunately, the Mclibtards made a side bet with Len M and Tanya Peck's Live Straddlers.  They were seated on our left, and we could not keep up with their chip count.  They also crippled us and any chance at finishing higher than our 7th place finish after Comrade Foldem and Live Straddler Bruce Iwamoto tangled in a Stud 8 pot.

 

After CHORSE, James, Sean, and I go to the Triple 7 brewpub at the Main Street Station for some food and refreshments.  It's happy hour and other BARGErs are strolling in.  Pretty soon our table swells to 11 including Robert "Action Bob" Hawg, Steve "Ice" Eisenstein, Goldie, Nolan, Marlin, Bob Lauria, and others.  The highlight here is I get introduced to "credit card roulette" where the last card not picked from a hat by the waitress pays for the entire tab.  I begin to sweat when my credit card has not been pulled half-way through.  Fortunately, Marlin who is fresh of his team's CHORSE victory turned out to be the ultimate "winner". 

 

That evening Tanya graciously gives James, Sean, and I a ride to the Smoker.  I've never been to the Vegas suburbs before.  The Goldman's place is very nice.  The BBQ was tasty, Sharon and Dan deserve much thanks and appreciation for hosting this sweet event.  The evening cooled down to make it very comfortable to hang out outside by their pool.  I smoke a cigar for the very first time in my life.  James picked up a very smooth one for me.  It was actually pretty good since I was expecting the worst with comments like "I might be tasting it for days". 

 

Mark Rafn gives us a ride back downtown, and it's on to the Craps Crawl. James, Sean, Tim ts4z Showalter, and I form a $400 Craps syndicate.  It basically allowed us to 'go bust slower" as the darkside bettors Paul "prmcm" McMullin and ADB Jestor cleaned up.  Sean probably was the only one of us who had one profitable roll, which he could not repeat later.  Everyone else's roll sucked.  The pull of the darkside may be irresistable next year.

 

The evening finished up with us at the Main Street Station in the wee hours trying to recoup some losses in at Blackjack.  Marlin is at this table was trying to keep his drinks flowing and the count straight, and grumbles at anyone who ignores his count.  Lose the less than $10 remainder of the Craps syndicate money and drop other $100 before heading to bed.

This was my second BARGE.  It was a blast eventhough I blew through over a grand just in goofing around in -EV activities (for me these were Craps, BJ, Sports Betting, goofball DC games, & Chinese poker with JP)  and couldn't muster any run in the TOC and main event. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next play in my first Video Poker tourney.  I apparently am not fast enough or lucky enough on the machines and don't even make 2,000 credits.  I do get a numb finger out of the experience.

 

In the evening, James treats me, Virgin Queen Sean, and Foldem to dinner at Delmonico Steakhouse (that Emeril/"bam" guy's place) at the Venetian.  Foldem's cheek is swollen from a root canal like he is carrying a marble in his mouth, but we share the Chateaubriand for two, and it's delish (perfectly medium rare and tender).  We drink 2 great bottles of wine.  

 

After dinner, Foldem goes back to Binions to rest while James, Sean, and I wonder around the Venetian, Caesar's palace, and Bellagio looking for a good poker game to play.  We don't see a good worth playing so we end up just sitting near the bar outside the Bellagio poker room drinking, talking, and (for Sean & James) smoking cigars.